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Israeli Minister Gilad Erdan Calls To Recognize Armenian Genocide

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  • Israeli Minister Gilad Erdan Calls To Recognize Armenian Genocide

    ISRAELI MINISTER GILAD ERDAN CALLS TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

    Updated News
    http://updatednews.ca/2012/06/12/israeli-minister-gilad-erdan-calls-to-recognize-armenian-genocide/
    June 13 2012
    Canada

    An Israeli cabinet minister said on Tuesday that the Jewish state
    ought to change its policy and recognize the 1915 mass killings of
    Armenians by Ottoman Turks as an act of genocide.

    Gilad Erdan, a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
    answered a motion in parliament by opposition lawmakers marking the
    massacre's anniversary.

    "I think it is definitely fitting that the Israeli government formally
    recognize the Holocaust perpetrated against the Armenian people,"
    Erdan, Israel's environmental affairs minister said.

    Israel has long avoided acknowledging the mass killings of Armenians
    as genocide, in deference to already strained ties with Turkey which
    rejects that view.

    Relations with Turkey have been tense since the 2010 killings of nine
    Turkish activists in a commando raid on a Gaza-bound ship. Turkey
    withdrew its ambassador to Israel after that incident and suspended
    military cooperation.

    Erdan said the Israeli government had not formally changed its
    policy on the Armenian's past tragedy, adding: "we should definitely
    support holding an open and in depth discussion that analyses the
    data and facts."

    Armenia, backed by many historians and parliaments, says about 1.5
    million Christian Armenians were killed in what is now eastern Turkey
    during World War One in a deliberate policy of genocide ordered by
    the Ottoman government.

    Successive Turkish governments and most Turks feel the charge of
    genocide is an insult. Ankara argues that there was heavy loss of
    life on both sides during fighting in the area.

    Israeli lawmakers voted that the issue would face further debate
    in the education committee. Any parliamentary decision on the issue
    would not be binding on the government.

    Yigal Palmor, a spokesman at Israel's Foreign Ministry, said Israel's
    formal position on the Armenian tragedy remained that the issue "must
    be decided by historians and not be subject to political deliberation."

    The Armenian issue has stirred emotions in Israel where many feel
    that the Jewish people who suffered six million dead in the Nazi
    Holocaust during World War Two have a moral obligation to identify
    more closely with the Armenians' ordeals.

    "Those who demand recognition of the murder are not engaged in lobbying
    but are simply seeking historic justice," Israeli Parliament speaker
    Reuven Rivlin, a member of Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, said.

    Nino Abesadze, a lawmaker with the centrist Kadima party, counseled
    against linking the issue to relations with Turkey.

    "We must not link our sentiments about the Armenian tragedy to
    considerations about other dangers in the region. Events such as
    genocide are above politics," Abesadze said.



    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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